It says something about the success of a misinformation campaign when it’s called out for official recognition two years in a row. Politifact, the independent fact-checking web site associated with the St. Petersburg Times, named “death panels” it’s “Lie of the Year” in 2009. This year’s winner: “government takeover of health care.”

Correctly pointing out that the phrase was promoted early on by Republican wordsmith strategist Frank Luntz, Politifact writes today that, “as Republicans smelled serious opportunity in the midterm elections, they didn’t let facts get in the way of a great punchline. And few in the press challenged their frequent assertion that under Obama, the government was going to take over the health care industry.”

A more recent set of lies comes courtesy of the Word Police Republicans sitting on the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission, who voted to ban the words “Wall Street,” “deregulation,” “shadow banking,” and “interconnection” from their final report. Here’s Paul Krugman: Invincible Ignorance – NYTimes.com